


lovers talk (what could be)

by Earfalas



Category: The Lion in Winter (1968)
Genre: Character Study, Dialogue, M/M, This is very short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:47:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28457775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Earfalas/pseuds/Earfalas
Summary: Richard and Philip talk and as always they say nothing (or too much)
Relationships: Philip II of France/Richard I of England
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	lovers talk (what could be)

**Author's Note:**

> this is pretty much unfinished, but i had a problem with my hard drive lately that made me realize that maybe posting even half-written things was better than having them lost forever. maybe i will come back to it later !

\- I wish my father hadn’t been Louis and yours hadn’t been Henry, and we had been born from one of their vassals men instead. Then we would have met at some point, as squire boys to some knights, at a tournament in Poitiers or Chinon or Troyes, and we would have been quick friends, escaping from our duties during the melee to go walk in the woods. I would have shown you how well I can climb trees to pick the eggs out of nests, and you would have outrun me while we flew after stealing apples in some poor sod’s orchard, and we would have loved each other in the way we didn’t manage in this life.

\- You really do think there is no hope for us?

\- Not when we are our father’s sons, no I don’t

\- Who am I but my father’s son? I’ve never been anything else. I don’t know how. I thought I knew with you. I’m different with you, you must know that, you must have noticed. It’s like I can breathe. Like the air can fly through my lungs without them stiffening and choking me. Don’t laugh.

\- I’m not laughing

\- You smiled.

\- It’s because you keep talking. You keep trying. You can’t take no for an answer and that makes me smile.

\- I’m sorry. I’ve only ever known smiles used as knives.

\- That’s what I mean. We can’t love each other because you’re terrified I will stab you with a word or a smile. You don’t trust me.

\- I trust you

-You don’t trust me to not lie to you on the things that matter.

\- What things?

\- Me, loving you. You don’t believe me when I say it.

\- Because no one ever believed it when they said it to me. Just words to push me in one direction or another. I came trotting like a puppy to hear someone saying “I love you”. I’d do tricks like a puppy too. Go to war for a “I love you”. Follow whichever scheme of the day for a “I love you”. I kept doing and doing, and _he_ never said it, never even called my name.

-Richard.

\- I’m sorry.

\- Richard, when I say I wish we weren’t who we are so we could have met and be in love…

\- That again-

\- I say it because I wish you hadn’t suffered so. I wish we could have had an easy love instead of this booby-trapped winding road we’re walking on. Every turn on the way unfold new pain and sorrows, be they past or future.

\- I’m a king’s son, at the head of a prosperous kingdom. I’m a warrior and an esteemed general. Are my sufferings so great? It’s nothing to cry about.

\- I have never seen you cry. I do think you have no tears left. Your dear mother dried up that particular spring pretty early, did she?

\- You two are more similar than you think.

\- Oh is that so?

\- You both now how to cut deep within me. How to hurt me. And then turn away as if you had never struck such a blow in your life. And neither of you can I can seem to bring myself to hate.

\- Do you know, I tried to hate you so hard, during those two years. I was applying to it like a monk focus of copying a manuscript, it’s was a true work of patience. But every now and then I would remember a sweet memory and before I could stop myself I was reminded of how much I love you. And then I had to build up my hatred all over again.

\- Why are you telling me this?

\- It’s impossible to hate you, Richard.

\- And you’re going to say it’s as impossible to love me?

\- That’s what you seem to think. It’s the easiest thing in the world for me, I can’t fight it.


End file.
